petraeus performed his last act as commander of nato forces in afghanistan. he handed off authority to the new komd ander john allen. petraeus is retiring from the army at the end of the month. he will be taking over as director of the cia in september. >> that's right. the government not able to pay its bills is looming large they are morning. the clock ticks towards the deadline. 16 days now and counting. the president and congressional lead remember pecked to meet again this week. last week wasn't all that successful. at the same time, the senate will begin debating a scaled-back fallback plan. both sides say they are optimistic they will strike a deal. >> i'm confident cooler heads will prevail. at tend we will not allow the united states to default on its debt despite the fact some people think that would be okay. >> if the president keeps insisting on raising taxes on american workers, there's not going to be a deal. i do think, however, that republican leaders will not allow the country to go into default. >> president obama insists both parties must agree on a deal by friday in

afghan women are breaking the mold. they are trained to become female pilots in afghanistan's air force. >> and are training in texas. ed lavandara has more on their history making mission. >> reporter: the passion and dreams of these four women easily cuts through their broken english. >> we are going to open the door for our laid niece afghanistan. it is a big deal for us to open the door. ladies that have dreams but can't do it. we want to show them. >> reporter: these laid reese lieutenants in the afghanistan military and have come to the united states to study english at the defense language institute in texas. it is their dreams of piloting helicopters that could help change the future of women in their homeland. >> these young ladies are path finders, trail blazers. and -- as such, they are subject to the criticism and antagonism of those that don't want to see the particular path. >> reporter: the soldiers say they are prepared for the scrutiny and are confident. >> the women of afghanistan, don't be afraid of anything. if you want to do something, you can do it. just beli

qaeda is back in afghanistan. the afghan army is short-staffed and learning to shoot as the u.s. tries to leave what a cnn crew found out on patrol in the mountains. >>> i'm ali velshi. nasa about to retire its shuttle program after friday's final launch. the space agency now looking into its past to help make a transition into its future on this "american morning." good morning. it's wednesday, july 6th. i'm christine romans. >> gla we are still talking about the casey anthony trial. what happens now? she could be a free woman tomorrow at her sentencing. committed on murder charges. after six weeks of testimony, nearly 11 hours of jury deliberations, it was not the courtroom climax that many seem to be expecting. >> as to the charge of first-degree murder, verdict as to count i, we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. as to the charge of aggravated child abuse, verdict as to count ii, he w, the jury, found the defendant not guilty. as as to the aggravated manslaughter of a child, count iii, we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. >> wow. the look on her face. just the

. >>> leon panetta rallying the troops in the war zones in iraq and afghanistan. he is in baghdad this morning where he's meeting with u.s. forces as well as iraqi leaders. he says iraq has to do more to prevent insurge attacks on americans with iranian weapons. >> i would like for iraq to exert more of an effort to go after those extremists that are making use of these weapons, that if you are going, they have a responsibility to protect against that kind of attack occurring. >> all 46,000 remaining american troops are withdrawing this year under an agreement between the two countries. iraqi leaders are debating whether to request u.s. troops stay in the country beyond 2011. >>> this morning, pakistan telling america, keep your money, after the u.s. announced it's withholding $800 million in military aid. this is more evidence of the growing rift between the u.s. and pakistan. white house chief of staff william daly says it's in response to pakistan's decision to cut back on counterterrorism operations after the killing of osama bin laden. the u.s. typically gives pakistan more than $

story. we go live to kabul, afghanistan. david, this one has got people wondering. what's going on? >> reporter: well, the news first broke by an afghan television station and then later in the day, cnn and other media received a message by an individual claiming to be a top taliban commander. that individual said that mullah omar had died of heart failure last week and a successor had already been named. the taliban, like you said, later came out and said they have been the victim of a hacking and their phones and emails have been tapped. in fact this message was phoney. cnn doesn't have any confirmation of the sort. we spoke with nato official and they have no operational knowledge on the ground. so the whereabouts of mullah omar are unknown. last believed to be in pakistan, where taliban militants have launched attacks across that border against troops down in the southern region. it's those southern and eastern regions of afghanistan that have experienced some of the highest levels of attacks. and this all comes at a very interesting time. we're seeing a hand over of seven key